Zeus
In the ancient Greek religion, Zeus ( /ˈzjuːs/ zews;3 Ancient Greek: Ζεύς; Modern Greek: Δίας, Dias) is the "Father of Gods and men" (πατὴρ ἀνδρῶν τε θεῶν τε, patēr andrōn te theōn te)4 who rules the Olympians of Mount Olympus as a father rules the family. He is the god of sky and thunder in Greek mythology. His Roman counterpart is Jupiter and Etruscan counterpart is Tinia. His Hindu equivalent is Indra.Zeus is the child of Cronus and Rhea, and the youngest of his siblings. In most traditions he is married to Hera, although, at the oracle of Dodona, his consort is Dione: according to the Iliad, he is the father of Aphrodite by Dione.2 He is known for his erotic escapades. These resulted in many godly and heroic offspring, including Athena, Apollo and Artemis, Hermes, Persephone (by Demeter), Dionysus, Perseus, Heracles, Helen of Troy, Minos, and the Muses (by Mnemosyne); by Hera, he is usually said to have fathered Ares, Hebe and Hephaestus.5As Walter Burkert points out in his book, Greek Religion, "Even the gods who are not his natural children address him as Father, and all the gods rise in his presence."6 For the Greeks, he was the King of the Gods, who oversaw the universe. As Pausanias observed, "That Zeus is king in heaven is a saying common to all men".7 In Hesiod's Theogony Zeus assigns the various gods their roles. In the Homeric Hymns he is referred to as the chieftain of the gods.His symbols are the thunderbolt, eagle, bull, and oak. In addition to his Indo-European inheritance, the classical "cloud-gatherer" also derives certain iconographic traits from the cultures of the Ancient Near East, such as the scepter. Zeus is frequently depicted by Greek artists in one of two poses: standing, striding forward, with a thunderbolt leveled in his raised right hand, or seated in majesty. Etymology In Greek, the god's name is Ζεύς Zeús /zdeús/ (nominative : Ζεύς / Zeús ; vocative : Ζεῦ / Zeû ; accusative : Δία / Día ; genitive : Διός / Diós ; dative : Διί / Dií) In Minoan culture, Zeus was not worshipped by mainstream Minoans, rather in small cults that thought of him as a mortal demigod that was eventually killed.8 The earliest forms of the name are the Mycenaean Greek di-we and di-wo, written in Linear b syllabic script.9 With the apparent interchangeability of "z" and "d", Zeus can also be Deus.Zeus, poetically referred to by the vocative Zeu pater ("O, father Zeus"), is a continuation of *Di̯ēus, the Proto-Indo-European god of the daytime sky, also called *Dyeus ph2tēr ("Sky Father").8 The god is known under this name in Sanskrit (compare Dyaus/Dyaus Pita), Latin (compare Jupiter, from Iuppiter, deriving from the Proto-Indo-European vocative *dyeu-ph2tēr10), deriving from the basic form *dyeu- ("to shine", and in its many derivatives, "sky, heaven, god").And in Germanic mythology (compare *Tīwaz > Old High German language Ziu, Old Norse Týr), together with Latin deus, dīvus and Dis (a variation of dīves11), from the related noun *deiwos. To the Greeks and Romans, the god of the sky was also the supreme god. Zeus is the only deity in the Olympic pantheon whose name has such a transparent Indo-European etymology. Zeus in myth Birth Cronus sired several children by Rhea: Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, and Poseidon, but swallowed them all as soon as they were born, since he had learned from Gaia and Uranus that he was destined to be overcome by his own son as he had overthrown his own father—an oracle that Rhea was to hear and avert.When Zeus was about to be born, Rhea sought Gaia to devise a plan to save him, so that Cronus would get his retribution for his acts against Uranus and his own children. Rhea gave birth to Zeus in Crete, handing Cronus a rock wrapped in swaddling clothes, which he promptly swallowed. Infancy Rhea hid Zeus in a cave on Mount Ida in Crete. According to varying versions of the story: #He was then raised by Gaia. #He was raised by a goat named Amalthea, while a company of Kouretes— soldiers, or smaller gods— danced, shouted and clashed their spears against their shields so that Cronus would not hear the baby's cry (see cornucopia). #He was raised by a nymph named Adamanthea. Since Cronus ruled over the Earth, the heavens and the sea, she hid him by dangling him on a rope from a tree so he was suspended between earth, sea and sky and thus, invisible to his father. #He was raised by a nymph named Cynosura. In gratitude, Zeus placed her among the stars. #He was raised by Melissa, who nursed him with goat's-milk and honey. #He was raised by a shepherd family under the promise that their sheep would be saved from wolves. King of the gods After reaching manhood, Zeus forced Cronus to disgorge first the stone (which was set down at Pytho under the glens of Parnassus to be a sign to mortal men, the Omphalos) then his siblings in reverse order of swallowing. In some versions, Metis gave Cronus an emetic to force him to disgorge the babies, or Zeus cut Cronus' stomach open. Then Zeus released the brothers of Cronus, the Gigantes, the Hecatonchires and the Cyclopes, from their dungeon in Tartarus, killing their guard, Campe.As a token of their appreciation, the Cyclopes gave him thunder and the thunderbolt, or lightning, which had previously been hidden by Gaia. Together, Zeus and his brothers and sisters, along with the Gigantes, Hecatonchires and Cyclopes overthrew Cronus and the other Titans, in the combat called the Titanomachy. The defeated Titans were then cast into a shadowy underworld region known as Tartarus. Atlas, one of the titans that fought against Zeus, was punished by having to hold up the sky.After the battle with the Titans, Zeus shared the world with his elder brothers, Poseidon and Hades, by drawing lots: Zeus got the sky and air, Poseidon the waters, and Hades the world of the dead (the underworld). The ancient Earth, Gaia, could not be claimed; she was left to all three, each according to their capabilities, which explains why Poseidon was the "earth-shaker" (the god of earthquakes) and Hades claimed the humans that died (see also Penthus).Gaia resented the way Zeus had treated the Titans, because they were her children. Soon after taking the throne as king of the gods, Zeus had to fight some of Gaia's other children, the monsters Typhon and Echidna. He vanquished Typhon and trapped him under Mount Etna, but left Echidna and her children alive. Zeus and Hera Zeus was brother and consort of Hera. By Hera, Zeus sired Ares, Hebe and Hephaestus, though some accounts say that Hera produced these offspring alone. Some also include Eileithyia and Eris as their daughters. The conquests of Zeus among nymphs and the mythic mortal progenitors of Hellenic dynasties are famous. Olympian mythography even credits him with unions with Leto, Demeter, Dione and Maia. Among mortals were Semele, Io, Europa and Leda (for more details, see below).Many myths render Hera as jealous of his amorous conquests and a consistent enemy of Zeus' mistresses and their children by him. For a time, a nymph named Echo had the job of distracting Hera from his affairs by talking incessantly, and when Hera discovered the deception, she cursed Echo to repeat the words of others. In the series Zeus was told by God that Satan is going to destroy heaven so he helps him out with the rest of his old friends Hades, Poseidon, Hermes, and Helios to stop Satan. Zeus let's a lighting bolt to kill a devil minion to kill him. Zeus and his friends try to destroy that statue of Satan of his old friend. When the battle was over Zeus and the rest of his friends got out of Hell so did God. Then God told his friends from no site of Satan's son Grindour. [egojay Category:jaden Category:Gods Category:C Category:Season One